1 John (Program #36) – The Virtues of the Divine Birth to Overcome the World, Death, Sin, the Devil, and the Idols (4)

The marvelous book of 1 John stresses the divine birth, the divine life and the fellowship all believers can experience and enjoy in the flow of this divine life. It is not a book of great doctrine but rather it is a book as is John’s gospel revealing the living and true God subjectively and experientially to mankind.

Finally in its concluding verses it tells us that above all we now possess the capacity to know Him not just know about Him.

In the apostle Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians he vividly describes how desperate mankind is apart from God. Listen to Chapter 2:12
“That you were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”

But in his letter to the new believers in Thessalonica he repeatedly points them to the great hope of all the believers and that is the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and the promise of our rapture at the end of the age.

Rapture is a big topic in the New Testament but in the few selected verses in 1 Thessalonians we have a marvelous overview that will fill all believers with the genuine hope. Promised in God’s word and secured in the shed blood of Christ. He is coming again and all those who believe will join Him at that coming.

“But we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who are sleeping, that you would not grieve even as also the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and arose, so also those who have fallen asleep through Jesus, God will bring with Him. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are living, who are left remaining unto the coming of the Lord, shall by no means precede those who have fallen asleep; Because the Lord Himself, with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are living, who are left remaining, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we will be always with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

Ephesians (Program #60) – The Church as a Hybrid Life; the Mingled Spirit for the Church Life

Every person asked themselves at some point in their life, why am I here? Or even what’s the reason for the universe and everything in it? Well, as believers we probably add to those questions a third, why did God save me? What purpose does He has for me being a Christian? Well, these are the great questions that had perplexed and puzzled mankind for all time. Yet the Bible speaks very clearly to these great universal questions, especially in the New Testament book of Ephesians. We will consider the answers to these questions from the perspective that the apostle Paul gives us in this most marvelous book of the Bible.

God’s plan for our redemption require a full and complete sacrifice for our sins and transgressions. A spotless lamb was the type in the Old Testament until the real Lamb of God would arrive on the scene to take away the sins of the people and satisfy God’s righteous demands forever. Of course, as Christians we know that Jesus Christ was such a perfect offering on our behalf. Of all the passages of Scripture that deal with the great reality of the Christian faith, none provide a perfect and poetic narrative the chapter 53 in the Old Testament book of Isaiah. This prophecy was written some seven hundred years before Christ, yet the description is awesome in its detail of Christ offering Himself for the transgression and iniquities of mankind. Stay tune for our second program on Isaiah 53 on today’s life study of the Bible.

The Bible reveals that God has a plan or an economy. It also reveals that God has an enemy bend on the frustration of His accomplishing that plan. Between these two is mankind, include even God’s elect. What strategy does God’s enemy employ to delay and frustrate God in His unfailing pursue of this goal? That’s the focus on today’s broadcast and is also the focus of much of our daily struggle in the Christian life. Stay with us for a very enlightening program on the life study of the Bible.

It should come as a surprise to no one really that God is revealed in the Bible. But that is not all of course many things are revealed but primarily three things are shown to us in the Bible: God, mankind in general and even yourself in particular and of course Christ.

Well, it is very easy to see God manifested in the pages of the Bible and if we look at the story of God’s people through out history in the pages of the Bible we will also see man but to see Christ unveiled is not so easy. Deuteronomy, we find is an extract of the entire Bible and it too primarily reveal these three main things.

Rebellion. Of all the evils and sins of mankind none carry greater consequence nor evoke a more serious reaction from God. That’s because the target or object of all rebellion is authority which comes from and signify God Himself. God’s people Israel were caught up in acts of rebellion against God and His deputy authority on many occasions. The book of Numbers records the accounts of several progressive stages of rebellion ultimately resulting in God’s judgment and wrath being poured out in a very sobering display. The on-going and progressive rebellion of Israel in the wilderness is again our topic on our life study from Numbers.

There is a famous bell in Philadelphia of Pennsylvania with the inscription engraved on it from the Old Testament book of Leviticus, 25:10, which says “Proclaim liberty through out all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” In the United States this liberty bell is a traditional symbol of U.S. freedom. But the freedom refer to in the Bible is much bigger. It is referred to as Jubilee. The Lord Jesus proclaims this liberty for all mankind, when He announced in Luke 4:18-19, “the Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed Me to announced the Gospel to the poor, He has sent Me to proclaim the release to the captives and the recovery of sight to the blind to send away in release those who are oppressed to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of Jubilee.”

Luke (Program #45) – The Man-Savior’s Presentation of Himself to Death for Redemption (5)

At the time the Lord Jesus was on the earth, all those around Him, both His followers and those opposing Him wanted Him to tell them about the end time. When is the kingdom coming? What about the rapture? When would the Lord’s second coming be? These questions continue to interest mankind, both believers and the unbelievers share a certain curiosity, Yet the Lord Jesus both then and now is not so much interested in satisfying our curiosity as He is in awaking us up from our spiritual sleep that we would be wise and beseeching Him that we would not be those who are caught unaware or worst, unprepared at His coming.

Mark (Program #42) – The Death and Resurrection of the Slave-Savior for the Accomplishment of God’s Redemption (4)

As Jesus was hanging there on the cross for six agonizing hours bearing the reproach of man and the judgment of God, He did so as a genuine man. Yes, He was unique among all mankind in that He was without sin even of Himself, but His humanity was the same as ours in every other way.

Yet at the same time He was also God and despite the fact that for the final three hours of His suffering, God as the economical Spirit had to forsake Him, while He took upon Himself the sins and transgressions of every man.

Yet intrinsically and essentially He was and still is God. This is Christ Jesus, the Lord our Savior. The immortal Who put on mortality. And this mysterious and marvelous God Man died a death that accomplish what no other death could ever accomplished.

His death accomplish far more than just the forgiveness of sins as we will see today. And in addition to dealing with all the negative things, His death also release the divine life to create the New Man, the New Creation and ultimately to bring in the kingdom of God.